Many brand names and varieties of markers exist for the purpose of emphasizing printed or written material and to designate particular areas on paper surfaces. For example, one such commercial type of marker is produced by Carter's Ink Company and is known by the trade name HIGHLIGHTER.RTM..
Typically, these emphasizing markers use pastel or fluorescent shades of transparent or translucent inks or dyes which are water-based and non-pigmented. Such highlighting inks and dyes are generally applied by rubbing a liquid saturated felt tipped applicator across or around the paper surface which is to be emphasized and generally over the permanent type of ink marking to be emphasized. The paper surfaces typically are photocopies, books, drawings, newsprint, documents or other similar papers having rather permanent type ink or print thereon.
Highlighting is so easy to apply that it is often overused, mistakes are easy to make and most unfortunately many of the colors reproduce as gray shaded areas on photocopies of highlighted surfaces. It is therefore highly desirable to provide a means to erase, eradicate or otherwise remove the emphasizing inks or dyes from paper or other surfaces with little or no affect to the underlying printed, written or photocopied text and without substantial damage to the paper or other surfaces.